The Iron Dragon's Daughter
Michael Swanwick
Avon Books
Fiction, Fantasy
Themes: Alchemy, Dragons, Faeries and Kin, Fantasy Races, Portal Adventures, Religious Themes
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Description
Jane was stolen from her home as a young girl ago, swept into a world of elves and magic that parallels our own. She has worked all her life in a steam dragon factory, where the great iron dragon war machines are built. To escape is to die, through cunning spells and alert guards. The only way out would be aboard an iron dragon, one of whom is just as eager to escape as Jane is. But the war dragons are treacherous creatures, and even if she manages to escape, how is she supposed to survive in a world of strange magicks... a world that is not, and can never be, truly her own?
Review
Anyone who has been reading these reviews knows that one of my personal pet peeves with adult fantasy authors is the use of excessive sex and/or meaning-of-the-universe dissertations, to the point where the story is completely derailed. This book falls victim of both many times over. What seems to be an intriguing world - clockwork horses as car equivalents, sentient mechanical dragons and such - is completely brushed aside in the author's haste to break down reality for us and describe, in vivid detail, the sexual escapades of Jane and other characters. That is not why I read fantasy. The narrative drug horribly, the characters were impossible to sympathize with, and the ending fell flat with a heavy-handed message about the nature of reality. I don't know what Swanwick intended to accomplish with The Iron Dragon's Daughter, but to this reader he failed miserably.